The secondary ticketing website Viagogo was accused of “fraudulent mis-selling” by MPs after advertising tickets for an Ed Sheeran charity concert for £5,000.

Stuart Camp, Sheeran’s manager, told a Culture, Media and Sport select committee hearing into abuses in the ticket market that £40-£110 tickets for the singer’s Teenage Cancer Trust show at the Royal Albert Hall next week, were being listed for £5,000 on Viagogo.

None of the profits from the inflated prices would go to charity and the tickets were clearly marked “not to resale”, meaning those who bought them may be turned away.

John Nicolson, SNP MP, said: “This is naked, fraudulent mis-selling. Viagogo is lying to the public.”

The MP accused Google of “colluding in the fraudulent mis-selling of tickets” by allowing Viagogo’s adverts for Sheeran tickets to appear at the top of its search engine.

MPs condemned Viagogo, summoned to appear in front of MPs, for failing to send representatives. The company told MPs it was “unable to assist with the committee’s inquiries.”

“If not contempt of Parliament they’ve clearly shown lack of respect to parliamentarians and by extension the British public,” Nigel Adams MP said.

Fake Hamilton tickets advertised

Keith Kenny, sales and ticketing director for the sell-out hip-hop musical Hamilton, which took strict measures to combat touts, said Viagogo was selling tickets for £7,000 which he knew did not exist, since no paper tickets will be issued.

Damian Collins, committee chairman, said: “So they (Viagogo) are knowingly selling tickets and making money out of tickets where some of those tickets may not exist and the people that purchased those tickets may not be admitted to the show…They’re (Viagogo) virtually party to a fraud on people.”

Online touts using computerised “bots” programmes to snap up tickets for events in bulk face unlimited fines in future, as part of a Government crackdown.

He added that the situation was “blurred” by the Ticketmaster giant owning the secondary sites GetMeIn and Seatwave, which often directed fans to Sheeran tickets sold at inflated prices when the primary allocation was still available at face value.

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